Terrorist's release angers Cuba

[El Chavo]

http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/79712.html


Posted on Thu, Apr. 19, 2007
Posada arrives in Miami

BY OSCAR CORRAL, LUISA YANEZ AND ALFONSO CHARDY
After a two-year battle with immigration authorities, Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles arrived in Miami shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday after being released on $350,000 bond by a federal court in El Paso, Texas.
Posada's release is sure to unleash a firestorm in Venezuela and Cuba, where leaders accuse Posada of masterminding the bombing of a civilian jetliner that killed 73 people in 1976, among other alleged terrorist acts.

Posada has denied any involvement in the bombing, was cleared by a Venezuelan military court and was awaiting the outcome of a civilian court's ruling when he escaped in 1985.

The Cuban official news agency Prensa Latina reported the news mid-afternoon, headlining the item ''Despite worldwide rejection, Posada is released.'' The report carried no official government reaction.

José Pertierra, a Cuban-American attorney in Washington who represents the Venezuelan government, lashed out at the Bush administration, blaming it for Posada's court-ordered release.

''It is an affront to the memory of the victims of Posada's terrorism, but it speaks volumes about the absence of sincerity in President Bush's so-called war on terror,'' Pertierra said.

Cuban exiles in Miami were pleased that Posada, a former CIA operative -- and a hero to many -- was returning to Miami, at least temporarily, while he awaits trial.

''That's doing justice. He is not a danger to this community, and people here know he had nothing to do with the blowing up of the airplane, said Jose ``Pepin'' Pujol, a longtime friend of Posada's who is also under investigation in a case involving Posada.''

Santiago Alvarez, a wealthy developer and major Posada benefactor who ran afoul of the law after helping Posada emerge from hiding in Miami in 2005, said through his attorney that he is glad his friend has been released.

''Mr. Alvarez is thrilled that the justice system is working fairly for Luis Posada, and he wishes him the best,'' said Alvarez's Miami attorney, Ben Kuehne.

Alvarez is serving a three-year sentence at the Miami federal prison. Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat were accused of conspiring to stash machine guns, firearms, a silencer and a grenade launcher in a Broward apartment complex that belonged to Alvarez.

On Thursday, Posada traveled from El Paso to Miami with his lawyer, Art Hernandez, accompanied by U.S. marshals

''He has made bond, and we expect him to appear for trial on May 11,'' said Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman. Posada will be fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet for 24-hour monitoring.

In an exclusive interview with Carlos Santana of Radio Mambí 710-AM, Hernandez said as he arrived at the Miami airport that Posada ``has been processed criminally and by immigration. So now he's going home, and he will be there until his trial date.''

Posada, 79, was wearing a beige and white suit with a maroon shirt and he appeared to be tired, Radio Mambí reported. He will be reunited with his once-estranged wife and two grown children Janet and Jorge.

Posada is facing immigration fraud charges. An immigration judge ruled that he couldn't be deported to those countries because he might be tortured, and no other country has agreed to take him.

Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, said Posada also will be required to report to immigration authorities by telephone every two weeks and to continue trying to get a travel document ''from any government in the world'' so he can be deported at some point.

Raimondi, in a written statement, said Posada also will be required to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in person as soon as ''the criminal proceedings against him'' end and to ``surrender to ICE for removal in the event that he obtains travel documents necessary to relocate outside the U.S.''

Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, was indicted on charges of lying to U.S. immigration authorities about how he entered the country in 2005. An appeals court in New Orleans this week rejected prosecutors' attempts to keep Posada in jail until his trial.

In Cuba, the relatives of the victims of the downing of the Cuban commercial airliner in 1976 reacted with indignation to Posada's release, according to Agence France-Press in Havana.

''We are deeply angered. We didn't expect them to release him because they have sufficient elements to punish him for being a liar and a terrorist. They are protecting the murderer of our parents,'' said Camilo Rojo, of the Committee of Relatives of the Victims.

Rojo, the son of Jesus Rojo, an official of Cubana de Aviacíon who died in the bombing at age 33, described Posada's release as a ``lack of respect for all the victims of terrorism, not only in Cuba but throughout the world.''

Miami Herald reporter Jay Weaver and translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.


© 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

[Die Neue Zeit]

I really hope there is LESS continental cooperation with US authorities on the "drug war" until the US drops its double-standard BS re. terrorism.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

HAVANA - Cubans were outraged Thursday at the release of anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles from U.S. custody pending a May immigration trial.

Posada, an aging ex-CIA operative considered a terrorist by many in Cuba, faces a May 11 trial on immigration fraud charges in the United States. But Cuba and Venezuela accuse him of much more serious crimes, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people, something Posada denies.

Rallies were hastily organized across Cuba to protest his release.

"It's an insult for all Cubans and a tragedy for the families of his victims," said Ereslandi Rodriguez, a 22-year-old computer science student clutching a sign that read "The Dog is Loose" with a cartoon of Posada's head, with bloodstained fangs, on the body of a dog.

"The government of (
President Bush) should be ashamed of itself," said Rodriguez, squinting as the sun set over Havana's oceanfront Malecon Boulevard.

Some held black-and-white photographs of those killed in the airliner bombing.

Yellow school buses brought about 600 communist youngsters to a plaza outside the Havana headquarters of the U.S. mission. They waved plastic Cuban flags and chanted "Justice! Justice!"

A university communist youth leader, Silviano Merced, quoted Bush saying anyone who harbors or supports terrorists is as guilty as the terrorists themselves.

"For that reason, Mr. Bush," Merced told the Havana rally, "you are as much of a terrorist as Posada Carriles and his accomplices."

Cuba's communist government — including
Fidel Castro himself — had predicted the 79-year-old would eventually be released from jail, and it has repeatedly accused the United States of a double standard on terrorism.

"This is one of the most barbarous things the United States has done," said Rolando Hernandez, a Havana worker in his 40s. "It has betrayed its people and has betrayed the people of other countries."

Posada was freed from a New Mexico jail after he posted $250,000 bond and his family posted another $100,000 bond. He was headed Thursday afternoon to Miami, where he was to stay at his wife's house. He must wear an electronic monitoring device under terms of his release.

Posada, who was born in Cuba and naturalized in Venezuela, is accused of plotting the Cubana Airlines bombing while living in Caracas. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 and was detained in Florida in May 2005 for entering the United States illegally.

"Cuba energetically condemns this decision and holds the United States government responsible," said Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera, chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.

The U.S. and Cuba do not have diplomatic relations, and maintain interest sections in each other's territory, rather than embassies.

Castro's ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, demanded that the U.S. extradite Posada to stand trial in Venezuela for the bombing.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro accused Washington of being vowed a diplomatic and legal offensive for Posada to be tried.

"
George Bush's government is an accomplice of this terrorist," Maduro said. "It has protected him and today it has guaranteed his freedom, striking a blow against and mocking international law."

[apathy maybe]

While I oppose the release of this individual (on the grounds of hypocrisy if nothing else), I found one bit in this that was interesting.


"Rallies were hastily organized across Cuba to protest his release."

If a bit useless. Even if Bush and Co had direct influence over the judge's decision, I very much doubt that they would pay any attention to any number of protesters in Cuba.

And that leads to the second point. Yes Bush and Co are scum, however, in this case I doubt that they had anything to do with the release of this fellow. That isn't how the US system works.

One last question, where is this article from?

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

It's from the AP.

[The Grey Blur]

Posada is a complete bastard.


If a bit useless.
The protests demonstrate to the world that injustices like this are occurring, amongst lots of other reasons. I certainly wouldn't decribe them as "useless" anyway.

Something you fail to understand is that the revolution is like a wall being built - building block upon buliding block; it is a process which requires determination and does not just spontaneously occur. Think of protests like this, and protests/rallies in general (whether "useless" as you call it or to win short term gains) as just one sort of building block.


And that leads to the second point. Yes Bush and Co are scum, however, in this case I doubt that they had anything to do with the release of this fellow. That isn't how the US system works.
If "Bush and Co" so desired this guy could be immediately tried for his terrorist bombings. That's how the capitalist system works. Let's stop apologising for it.

[Axel1917]

This is truly sickening, but this is how capitalism works; as long as the killing, no matter how much, is done in the interests of capitalism, the killer will die free as long as he/she does not bite the hand that fed him/her.

[RebelDog]

"Rallies were hastily organized across Cuba to protest his release."

If a bit useless. Even if Bush and Co had direct influence over the judge's decision, I very much doubt that they would pay any attention to any number of protesters in Cuba.


Are you going to the G8? Do you think they'll listen to protesters there?

[Janus]

Merged.

I think that Chavez made a good arguement in pointing out that Posada's case shows how much of a farce Bush's war on terrorism really is.